Breaking from Bush

FOIA requests

Obama on Jan. 21 said his administration would rewrite Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) guidelines to allow more public access to government documents. The move reversed a policy set by Bush's first attorney general, John Ashcroft, of using any legal basis to reject FOIA requests, which are often made by journalists seeking access to government records.

Despite Obama's early moves in this arena, he has fallen under criticism recently for maintaining Bush-era secrecy on documents authorizing waterboarding and other interrogation methods.